


Fresh Scars

by angstyastronaut



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, More or less Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 18:03:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21001880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstyastronaut/pseuds/angstyastronaut
Summary: Mistyfoot seeks out Leopardstar a few moons after the battle with Bloodclan.





	Fresh Scars

The river ran clear now absentmindedly reaching out for the water. Utter silence hung over the island on which Riverclan made their camp. She looked over her shoulder, just able to make out the clearing hidden amongst reeds. If she pointed her ears just right, she could make out the snores of her sleeping Clan. 

Leopardstar looked back at the river just as a fish passed her. Her paws splashed in the river, claws raking through the cold. She swore that her claws brushed against the scales of the fish, but it swam past her and disappeared into the darkness. 

“Having a spot of night fishing?” Leopardstar froze as Mistyfoot emerged from the reeds, padding as silently as a mouse. Her tail bristled. No-one else knew about this fishing spot. It was her place, where she could get away from the Clan when it all became too much. She only came here at night, smearing river mud into her pelt to hide the scent. And now her deputy had ruined it. She bit down a hiss as her deputy sat beside her and started watching the river with the intent look of a fisher. It made Leopardstar feel foolish to see her use proper fishing technique, made her dig her claws into the dirt as she remembered the fish she had missed. She felt more foolish still when she remembered the river mud smearing her spotted pelt. It was obvious that she had been trying to hide herself away. 

“What brings you out at this hour?” Leopardstar asked her deputy when she couldn’t take the awkwardness in the air any longer. 

Mistyfoot didn’t reply. Leopardstar was about to ask again when she  _ lunged. _ Her muscles rippled as she burst from her sitting pose, forepaws flying into the water and hooked her claws into a spark of silver. A sizable fish shot up into the air, blood spraying from claw wounds. She stretched into the air to grab her prize in her jaws. Leopardstar nodded in approval as her deputy killed in a few swift shakes. It was a carp of unusual size, as big as her tail, enough to feed a sizable portion of the Clan. Mistyfoot let it slip from her jaws. It flopped down at Leopardstar’s paws. “For you,” she murmured, head bowed. 

Leopardstar moved forward and sniffed the fish delicately. Her mouth filled with saliva. She hadn’t eaten; a busy day had distracted her from such things. But she hesitated. “This is a generous offering. Why would you give me such a thing?” Sarcasm crawled into her voice.

Mistyfoot gave her a hard stare. “Is every friendly act a plot to you?” 

Leopardstar started. “What do you mean?” she snapped, flattening the hairs raising all over her body. The scent of anger filled the air. 

Her deputy huffed. “You always snap when someone does something nice for you. Or even if they do nothing at all.”

Leopardstar flinched, raising her lip. So her deputy had followed her to her quiet place just so that she could berate her? “Enough. Go back to your den. We will talk about this in the morning,” she said, pushing the carp away. “Take this. Riverclan will appreciate it,” she added, even though it was untrue; in times like these when the river ran with fish, any excess prey was thrown back into the river, no matter how large it may be. Keeping it in a pile under the sun would make the camp reek in no time.

Mistyfoot  _ snarled _ . The scent of anger in the air became so strong that the acrid stench threatened to overpower that of the fish. “I’ve had enough,” she stepped between Leopardstar and the trail back to the den. “You always try to run away.”

“I don’t run away,” Leopardstar snarled back. 

“You do. If someone does something nice, you run away. If they’re critical, you tear them to pieces and then run away. Ever since the battle,” Mistyfoot said, her usually smooth pelt fluffing up in anger. 

The night became cold. Leopardstar froze. So this was what her intrusion was really about. “We’ve been over this,” she whispered. 

Mistyfoot shook her head. “A three second apology isn’t ‘been over this’,” she said softly. 

“I don’t see why you need any more than that,” Leopardstar replied. Anger sparked in her deputy’s eyes.

“Oh? Would that be enough for you if your own Clan joined forces with a tyrant and turned against you for the circumstances of your birth? If your Clan watched as your brother was murdered? That’s cold, Leopardstar. It’s like you have no heart at all.”

Leopardstar cringed like a rabbit at Mistyfoot’s words. They were sharper than any claw, raking wounds deep in her soul. “I’ve made amends. I joined Lionclan in the end. I made you deputy,” she said desperately.  _ Please forgive me. _

Mistyfoot laughed. Leopardstar hissed, fur shooting up along her arched back. It was the worst sound she had ever heard come from a cat’s mouth; bitter and hateful, filled with bile. She’d never expected such a foul racket to come out of any cat’s mouth, let alone Mistyfoot. “I had no choice,” she whispered.

Her deputy hissed, exposing her long teeth. As long as those of a Thunderclan cat. “No choice? Who forced you to join Tigerclan? Riverclan didn’t want it; Mudfur warned you that Starclan didn’t-”

“Don’t be obtuse,” Leopardstar pretended she was at a Gathering, that she had to stand tall before her enemies. It didn’t work; try as she might she couldn’t push her ears forward or keep her pelt flat. “Leaders make hard choices. There was no guarantee that Lionclan would win. Tigerstar offered us power and safety. If I hadn’t taken his offer, Riverclan would not have survived.” Blood pounded in her ears. How dare Mistyfoot do this to her? She began to speak again. “You have disgraced yourself. Tomorrow you’ll be lucky to have a place in Riverclan. Maybe Thunderclan would be a better match for you.” She froze, staring into her deputy’s bright blue eyes.  _ She shouldn’t have said that. _

Mistyfoot stretched out her left paw, unsheathing the claws. Leopardstar watched in terror as she examined each claw, sharp as the hooks warriors would find sometimes in the fish killed by Twolegs. “Do you know what it’s like to be a prisoner and know that there’s no hope of your Clan saving you?” She shuddered. “Every day lasted forever, and we couldn’t sleep at night for fear. It was less than a moon, but by the end of it I felt like I had never been anywhere else.” Mistyfoot flipped her paw upwards. “Sometimes the guards would come in. They wanted to hurt us. Stonefur and I offered ourselves up so that they wouldn’t hurt the apprentices,” she said.

Leopardstar felt like she was going to be sick. Teeth marks had marked Mistyfoot’s pads so badly that they just lumps of scar tissue. Her deputy moved her foreleg closer so that she could see the vicious scars that marred it. Stomach churning, she realised why her deputy had been swimming so much more over these past moons.

“That was against orders,” Leopardstar spat, trying to stop the gruesome display. “I know that they declawed you on that side, anyway,” she said quickly. The flock of birds she’d been pursuing had flapped away when they heard the yowls. She’d found Shadowclan warriors arguing about who could have their prize upon her return. As she’d watched, Tigerstar had slashed at them and put the claws in the Bonehill. 

“Does it matter? They just wanted to cause pain. To watch suffering.” Mistyfoot looked down. “They started hurting Stormpaw and Featherpaw in the end. They-”

“That’s terrible,” Leopardstar said quickly. She didn’t need to hear this. Both of the warriors had had pelts marred by scars before their time. I need to stop this conversation.

“Sacrifices have to be made,” Leopardstar hated those words, almost choked on the poison oozing from them. 

“They were never the same after that,” Mistyfoot continued. 

Leopardstar cringed. “Stop,” she said hoarsely.

“Stormfur was such a cheerful ‘paw. Always asking questions and getting into trouble. Feathertail too,” Mistyfoot dug her mutilated paws into the fish. Guts seeped out in the trail of her claws. Her eyes were looking at her leader, but they were not seeing. They were somewhere else entirely.

“I know,” she whispered. 

“I don’t think I’ve seen Stormfur truly happy since then. He’s always so serious, always feeling like he has to sacrifice himself for others. Feathertail has nightmares every night. You know why we rarely see her? She can’t feel safe in Riverclan anymore, Leopardstar,” Mistyfur said.

Leopardstar knew; their warrior ceremony had been the closest thing they’d had to an interaction ever since she’d given them a quick apology a few days after the battle against Bloodclan. Feathertail had to be stopped from putting herself on every patrol possible, forced back into camp when she went on a night-time wander. Riverclan had learned to sleep when she cried out in the night. She’d seen all of the joy drain from Stormfur’s eyes as he became reckless, throwing himself into every danger as if to compensate for something. His latest brush with death, a fight with a dog, had earned him his name. If Feathertail hadn’t followed and given aid, he would be with Starclan. “There’s Thunderclan,” she said again.

Mistyfoot’s ears pulled back, eyes closing in sorrow. She shook her head. “We’re Riverclan cats, Leopardstar. Our blood doesn’t matter. I wish that you could see that.”

Leopardstar knew. But she hadn’t back then. When she’d found out about Stonefur and Mistyfoot’s mother she had been angry. She had looked at them and seen traitors, guilty of wearing the blue pelt of their mother and looking at her with blue eyes. The only thing staying her paw had been the tense situation in the other Clans, the knowledge that turning out the most respected warriors in her Clan could cause her position to slip through her paws like water. The only thing preventing her from doing the same to Feathertail and Stormfur had been the memory of Crookedstar when Silverstream left them; her kits had been the only thing that kept the leader alive. She’d stayed her paw then too. The thought of Crookedstar judging her poorly in Starclan had made her feel ill.

Until Tigerstar. The leader of Shadowclan had held her rapt with his subtle tongue. He’d made a thousand little promises: that they could head a great alliance, that she would not lose her power if she joined with him, and that his cruelties were right and just. Leopardstar hadn’t stood a chance. Uncertain and new to leadership, his words had bound her to his web of evil. He had come at just the wrong time; when a terrible mixture of fear, pride and festering anger had turned her heart from Starclan. That was what Leopardstar told herself every night in the hopes that she would be lulled to sleep. “I see now. I always saw, I was just a fool who couldn’t admit it,” she said. 

“An innocent cat had to die for you to learn.”

“What do expect of me? No cat can change the past,” Leopardstar rasped. She felt aged beyond her years, exhaustion soaking her to the bone. 

“I don’t know,” Mistyfoot said. She looked lost and lonely, like she was a kit again.

“Could you ever forgive me? If I really tried this time?” Leopardstar asked. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know how you could make this right, even if you tried.”

“You could kill me. If you really wanted to,” Leopardstar said. She meant it.

Mistyfoot shook her head. “If I ripped out your throat and tore the very memory of you to shreds, l wouldn’t feel any better. More than enough blood had been shed already. I do not want to spill more.” She dug deep gouges in the fish, instead.

“I’m sorry,” Leopardstar realised that she meant it for the very first time, that it didn’t hurt as it came out of her mouth. But it was as fragile as morning dew. 

“I know you are,” Mistyfoot said eventually. “Maybe someday that will be enough.”

Leopardstar’s feet carried her back to camp of their own accord, head bowed in shame. She looked back over her shoulders. Mistyfoot watched the stars, a rapt look on her face. Leopardstar could almost call it happiness. She looked up at the sky. It was utterly black, even though it was the middle of the night. No stars had blessed her sight for many moons. Leopardstar ran the rest of the way back. 

She didn’t sleep that night. Instead, she paced back and forth, thinking. Sometimes she would step out of her den and look up at the bleak sky. Her paws prickled.  _ What happened to cats who were denied the stars?  _ With that thought, Leopardstar would step back into her den.

As she could sense the dawn approaching, she lay down with her eyes wide open. Was she doomed to this forever, to look upon her Clan and feel the pain that she had wrought?  _ Perhaps, _ a voice whispered to her. It reminded her of Crookedstar. Or perhaps that was just wistful thinking. 

Leopardstar marched out into the night again. She had done terrible wrong. But she couldn’t stick her head in the mud anymore if she wanted to make things right. That was not the behaviour of a leader. A few stars twinkled faintly in the sky. With their light shining on her eyes, she made herself a promise. No matter the pain it caused her, she would try to heal the scars she had created. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this a few months now, but at this point I think it's as good as it's going to get. Any critiques are welcome.


End file.
